Charka

The Charca or Charka were a highland people of the central Bolivian Andes, spread across what is now Chuquisaca and northern Potosí; the Charka kingdom of Kollasuyu bound them with neighbours such as the Chuwi and Qhara Qhara. From the east came repeated Ava Guaraní raids, by people they called Chiriguano.

In the late fifteenth century Inca Túpac Yupanqui's armies invaded; after several defeats their leader Copacatiraca persuaded them to submit, and Charca warriors served in the Inca armies. The Portuguese Aleixo Garcia reached them around 1525, and in 1538 they allied with Gonzalo Pizarro's Spaniards. La Plata, later Sucre, was founded on their land in 1540 and gave its name to the Audiencia of Charcas.